UPSC CDS-I 2021: Apply online for 345 vacancies
UPSC has released the notification for the Combined Defence Services (CDS-I) exam 2021. This article gives you all the necessary details about this examination, including the eligibility, syllabus, and application process. Do read on for more.
The Combined Defence Services Examination is conducted by UPSC twice a year to select eligible candidates for recruitment as commissioned officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Before being recruited as officers, the candidates have to undergo rigorous training. For the CDS-I 2021, the total number of vacancies is 345. Eligibility
The eligibility criteria for the various services are different and are listed as follows:Stages of the examination and Syllabus
The exam comprises of the written examination and the interview for intelligence and personality test (for candidates who have cleared the written test). For admission to Indian Military Academy, Indian Naval Academy, and Air Force Academy, the candidate has to pass a written test consisting of 3 papers – English, General Knowledge, and Elementary Mathematics. Each paper will have maximum marks of 100 and a time limit of 2 hours per paper. On the other hand, for admission to Officers' Training Academy, the candidate will have to clear 2 papers – English and General Knowledge (time limit and maximum marks, in this case, is same). The question papers will be bilingual and will consist of objective-type questions only. The syllabus for the written test is as follows:English:
The English paper will be designed to test the candidate's understanding of English and the appropriate usage of words. Therefore, questions on synonyms, antonyms, idioms and phrases, comprehension, etc will be asked.General Knowledge:
The GK paper will test the candidate's knowledge of current affairs, general science, Indian history, and Geography. According to the notification, the questions will be such that even candidates without a specialized study of these subjects will be able to answer them. Elementary Mathematics:
The Mathematics paper will contain questions relating to Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Statistics and Mensuration. For the specific topics which will be covered in the exam, please refer to the official notification.
Click here if you want to know about some useful books for the CDS exam. You can also check out the past year's CDS papers on the official UPSC website upsc.gov.in.
After clearing the written papers, the candidate has to appear for the Intelligence and Personality test which will be conducted in two stages. The first stage will consist of an Officer's Intelligence Rating and Picture Perception and Description Test (PP&DT). The second stage will consist of Interview, Group Testing Officer Tasks, Psychology Tests, and the Conference which will be conducted over four days. Candidates who clear all these stages will have to clear the medical test conducted to check their physical fitness. Application process
The application for the CDS exam will be online through the official portal upsconline.nic.in. The application process is given below:Centres
The exam will be conducted in 41 cities. Please note that the centres will be allocated on a first-apply-first-allot basis. Once a centre is filled, it is frozen and candidates can only apply for the other available centres. Therefore it is important to apply as early as possible. The list of centres is as follows:
Agartala, Ahmedabad, Aizawl, Bengaluru, Bareilly, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cuttack, Dehradun, Delhi, Dharwad, Dispur, Gangtok, Hyderabad, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jammu, Jorhat, Kochi, Kohima, Kolkata, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Panaji, Patna, Port Blair, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Raipur, Ranchi, Sambalpur, Shillong, Shimla, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirupati, Udaipur, and Vishakhapatnam.Important dates
We hope that this article was helpful for aspiring candidates. If you have any doubts then please do check the official notification attached to this article.